7/30/13

A few days ago Kristy @ Quiet Play was looking for pattern testers for her latest design. I've been so busy, but I couldn't help myself and jumped at the opportunity. Kristy's designs are fantastic and this one is not the exception. The pattern is called Teeny Houses and consists of 9 different 6" blocks. Every little house is a bit different from the other and they are adorable. I had the pleasure of testing one the blocks. My experience with paper piecing is still limited, but the pattern is very well written and easy to follow. It comes together very quickly.

Anyway, after I finished testing the pattern I decided to make my little block into a wall hanging to decorate my sewing room. The words on the mini quilt are embroidered with DMC embroidery floss on natural linen (linen is my absolute favorite fabric). The quilting is free motion quilting with single loops all over. Yes you heard it right, free motion quilting! I finally tried free motion quilting for the first time and I am so pleased with the results. I still need to practice a lot more, but thank goodness the linen is very forgiving and it doesn't show much my mistakes.

7/27/13

Thank you so much for participating on the giveaway. I really enjoyed learning something new about all of you. And Mr. random generator has spoken and the winner is: Fiona @ Celtic Thistle Stitches . Congratulations! I'll be in touch with you soon.

7/23/13

Happy Tuesday! I hope you are having a lovely week. A few days ago I took these photos of the sunflowers growing in my garden, and I have been meaning to share them with you ever since. They are gigantic! The tallest ones reached the roof of the house. I was totally blown away. As they were growing they made me think of Jack and the Beanstalk. I thought maybe I had been giving magic beans as they kept growing and growing (lol). But no magic beans, just sunflowers.

I think sunflowers are such happy flowers, don't you agree?

Also, if yo have not entered my giveway you sitll have time. It closes this Friday.

7/21/13

It is has been a while since a had giveaway, so I thought it was time for one. A way to show my appreciation to all of you, my lovely readers who week after week come back and visit my little blog.
It is a charm pack of Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille.

So to participate: You must be a follower of my blog (old or new). Leave me a comment (and to make things more interesting) in your comment tell me something random about yourself.
The giveaway will be open until Friday July 26 and will announce the winner on Saturday July 27. I'm happy to ship internationally, so anyone can participate.

7/14/13

Hello and welcome to the July edition of the Slow Bloggers linky party. The Slow Bloggers Linky party is organized by the lovely Catherine @Knotted Cotton to celebrate our achievements during the month big or small. I'm so pleased to be hosting the link up this month and in honor of that I wanted to share with you my slow project. A few months ago I started The Framer's Wife Sampler Quilt, but after a couple of blocks I put it away and didn't work on it for a while. This weekend I decided to start again and made this three blocks. However, I have developed a love hate relationship with this quilt. I don't know if I'm ever going to finish it... I'll keep you posted about where this relationship goes, lol.

7/12/13

Happy Friday! I hope you had a lovely week. I finished the Superheroes quilt I have been working on for my four-year-old nephew. This was an interesting project and a little out of my comfort zone from beginning to end. Improv piecing is not my strong suit, but I had this idea of the superheros flying over the city landscape so I thought imrov piecing was they way to go. Surprisingly it was easier than I had thought and the quilt top came together rather quick.

I chose to quilt it with random lines all over. The lines left by the impov piecing on the negative space gave me the inspiration to choose this quilting style. I think it really works with the overall playful look of the quilt.

I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. The gray background provides the perfect background for the brightly colored characters and signs and at the same time it tones them down a bit. I just love it!

I can go on and on telling you about how much I love this little quilt, but the important thing is: did my nephew like it?... Oh yes he did! He was really excited... even though the day I gave it to him was a super hot day, he wrapped the quilt around him and told me -"thank you Tia, it is so cozy"- Oh that just melted my heart. Best thank you ever!

7/6/13

Ever since my friend Beth asked me to take part of the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Hop advice series I have been thinking about the advice I wanted to share with you. I started this blog at the end of 2011, but I didn't really started blogging until early last year. To be honest, I did not know what I was doing. Thankfully, I met Beth and joined the Blog Hop. It was one of the best experiences. I met wonderful bloggers from whom I've learned so much and continue to inspire me.

Over the past year and a half I have learned that the design of your blog plays a key role and one should spend some time making things look nice and tidy. For me, the design of my blog is a work in progress and continues to evolve with me as I learn more about blog design and the interesting and very intimidating subject that is HTML coding. The design of your blog is something very personal and it is what makes every blog unique, but here are some simple tips to help you optimize the look of your blog and make it more reader friendly.

Your blog header is like the front door to your house. It is the first thing visitors see when they stop by. Your blog header should make a statement , but it should not be so big that it takes up half of the page and readers have to scroll down to be able to read your latest post. Blog headers are topically 200-300 pixels in height. This allows the reader to view your blog header and part of the first post in most computer monitors.

When it comes to designing your blog header the possibilities are endless (i.e. just the name of your blog, some cute graphics, a photograph or a collage of photos). It might take some time for you to find what exactly suits your taste. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun. Try out different designs until you find something that you absolutely love and you feel reflects the essence of your blog.

"A picture is worth thousand words" it might sound like a cliche, but it is absolutely true. Photos are an essential part of of blogs. And some readers might be discouraged from coming back to your blog if the photos are poor. So take time to get know your camera and its settings. When taking photos for your blog take lots of pictures (and I mean a lot) in every possible angle you can imagine, play around with the settings of your camera so you can experiment and find out what works for you. Take advantage of free photo editing software products available such as Picasa, PicMonkey and Aviary (integrated on your Flickr account). Here you can read a post I wrote a while back about improving your photography on a budget.

Avoid bright colors and busy backgrounds for your blog. They are distracting and keep your readers from focusing on the content. Instead use a neutral or white background and allow your photos to shine.

There are some cool fonts out there and it may be tempting to use them in your blog (I've done it). However, some of those fonts are difficult to read and not very easy on your reader's eyes. Keep the font of the body of your post plain and simple. And reserve those special fonts for accents such a post title or tabs. Additionally, choose a black or gray color for the text of your blog post, bright colored fonts are not easy to read either.

Make it easier for you readers to find content in your blog. The pages feature offered by Blogger and Wordpress are an excellent feature for organizing your blog and directing your readers to specific content such a a list of the tutorials you have written, the projects you have completed, etc. Blogger allows you to add the pages to the top of your blog (right underneath your blog header), on the side bar or manually link to each page individually.

If you missed the Advice to New Bloggers from the previous weeks, please be sure to check it out!